Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

CHAP. VI GENERAL REMARKS 259
Use of Clay Pellets.
Captain P. J. Begbie, an old and painstaking and
(for his time) fairly accurate authority on the Malay
Peninsula, records the shooting of clay pellets (as well
as darts) from the blowpipe by the Jakun '
at
Malacca
in 1833. This statement is confirmed by Mr. L.
Wray, who informs me that these pellets are often
employed by bird-collectors at Malacca, where they
have been used from time immemorial. Mr. Wray
himself had a Malacca bird-collector (an Eurasian
Malay) who used these pellets for collecting purposes
in Perak. Mr. Douglas, of Sarawak, also tells me
that boys in Borneo commonly use small clay pellets
for shooting small birds, and that these pellets are
shot out of a small blowpipe.
Use of the Blowpipe.-
In loading, the blowpipe is held vertically in one
hand and the pointed end of the dart inserted with
the other into the orifice in the centre of the mouth-
piece.^ The latter is always fitted to the root-end
of the bamboo. Into the tul)e of the blowpipe, and
behind the butt-end of the dart, is almost invariably
inserted a small wad for the prevention of " windage."
This wad is made from the flocculent down that
1 Begbie, pp. 5, 6. for their reception), and he was only
2 As an examiile of the extreme able to obtain four specimens altogether
difficulty of obtaining information from (\'.-St. ii. 113).
the aborigines about the blowpipe, •• So Boiie (tr. Bourien), \t. 78 :
Vaughan-Stevens remarks that many " Into the bore of the inner Kimboo, at
Malays living near the O. Kuantan the mouthpiece, is placed an arrow
have never seen their blowpipes, several inches long." p"or an unique
though they know that they possess and questionable exception see Maxwell
them. In some cases these weapons mJ.R.A.S.^ .V. j9., No. 4, p. 48: "I
were hid in the sterns of liviti^q bamboos had always regarde